Our Souls Magnify the Lord the Almighty

Why Did the Seminary Sing Magnificat?

At HKBTS’s 65th Anniversary Thanksgiving Concert and Worship Service held on April 24th this year, the seminary Choir along with five guest singers sang a prestigious Christian hymn: the Magnificat. We chose this poignant hymn in particular for the celebration of HKBTS’s 65th anniversary. It is the anthem of our spiritual lives—our hymn of freedom.

Why do we sing this hymn? One of the reasons is to witness that although the seminary has weathered hardships, we continue to grow stronger through God’s grace.We have to praise God who has all along cared for the seminary, led us to face difficulties and displayed His mighty power in our midst.

In 1951, as the Leung Kwong Baptist Seminary in Guangzhou was closing its doors due to a change in political situation, a group of Baptist leaders under the guidance of God founded HKBTS in September of that same year. At that time, the society of Hong Kong needed rebuilding after the war, and poverty was widespread and severe.

In 2009 when I was inaugurated as the seminary’s president, Hong Kong society was again in trouble. At that time, society experienced an economic recession due to the global financial downturn and the world was in a state of turmoil as many regions in the Middle East and South Asia were at war. At the same time, the seminary also came to a low ebb in her history. In my presidential inaugural speech on January 19, I mentioned that difficulties and challenges would not make us disheartened, instead they improve our sense of direction and help us fulfill what God has entrusted to us prudently. We would not be discouraged or anxious because Christ our Lord has promised to return with power and glory. In Mark 13, the Bible says, “As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!’ ‘Do you see all these great buildings?’ replied Jesus, ‘Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.'” (13:1-2) Jesus also mentioned the omen about the temple’s destruction: you hear of wars and rumors of wars, nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, earthquakes in various places, and famines. Followers of Jesus Christ will be flogged in the synagogues. Brother will betray brother in death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death.

However, Jesus Christ has given us the promise: those who believe in him “will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.” Thank God that in the eyes of God, this was an opportunity to develop theological education for Baptists in Hong Kong. Jesus Christ has indeed great power and glory and He will come in clouds in our midst. Just as the psalmist says, “When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy . . . The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy.” (Ps 126:1-3)

How to Respond to Challenges of Today’s Society?

Today, Hong Kong is again in the midst of turmoil with extreme disparity between the rich and the poor. Our society is breaking apart and the world is in a state of restlessness.

How do our churches respond to these challenges? How does our seminary help and cooperate with our churches to respond together to these challenges? HKBTS’s teachers and students can be inspired by the first theologian of the church. Mary can be said to be the first theologian of the church. She is also the first model disciple to listen to, to accept, and to proclaim the gospel.

The young Mary was to face a difficult and important challenge. The angel said to her, “You will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.” She was astonished, not knowing how to respond: Being a virgin, how could she have premarital pregnancy? How could she face such a challenge?

We see that Mary was astonished and yet joyful. At the very beginning of her hymn of faith, she praised God for having done a great thing for her. Mary mentioned that God cares about her lowliness. What does “lowly” mean? Here, it refers not to spiritual humility but to her social status. Mary was lowly because she was young and unmarried, so she had almost little or no social status. Moreover, in a Roman occupied territory and in a patriarchal society with a large disparity between the rich and poor, her status was extremely low. It is natural that she would thank God for His concern about her even though she was lowly in status. She was grateful for God as He did not mind her low social position or not having a noble status. And He even chose her to bring the promised Messiah into the world. Therefore, she could not help singing, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” (Lk 1:46-47)

Singing the Song of Freedom

Mary did not only sing the hymn of life for herself, but she also sang the hymn of freedom for those faithful poor. Mary knew that God would dethrone the evil rulers and make a path in the wilderness of unrighteousness.

“He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever….” (Lk 1:51-55) Here God’s six kinds of action are displayed: he scatters the proud, dethrones the rulers, sends the rich away empty, performs mighty deeds, lifts up the humble, and fills the hungry with good food. These six acts are related to judgment and mercy. Mary believed in God’s judgment and mercy and that God would judge the arrogant and those with power and wealth. Furthermore, she believed that God’s mercy would come to Israel and He would bestow upon them kindness, honor, and life.

Herod’s Way of Doing Things

When Mary pointed out that the proud and those with power and wealth will be pulled down from their high positions, we naturally think of King Herod of the Jews. To people in Judea, Herod was the one who gave them a nightmare. He was not a Roman, but a semi-Jew and semi-Idumaean. Herod who was the chosen puppet of the Romans had gained the trust of the Roman government.

Herod knew well how to employ political trickery and he flattered Julius Caesar until he was assassinated. Then, he pretended to be loyal to Antony. When Augustus overran Antony, Herod claimed himself to be in union with Augustus. He witnessed innumerable dignitaries come to power and fall from power. Compared to these dignitaries, he felt that he could survive because he was even more clever, cunning, and fierce.

Herod was ruthless. He even killed his own wife Mariamne, his mother Alexendra, and his three sons. He ordered all male children under the age of 2 in Bethlehem and the surrounding areas to be killed.

One day, magi (wise men) from the east came to Jerusalem asking where the one who had been born king of the Jews was. Upon hearing the news, King Herod was perplexed and disturbed, regarding the coming of Jesus as enemy at the gates, fearing his power and position could be in jeopardy. Accordingly, he ordered all male children be killed so as to prevent the new king of the Jews from coming into his territory.

According to the gospel narrative, on the one hand, we can see that Herod considered Jesus with an attitude of jealousy and fear, even with the false hope of removing him as a threat. On the other hand, we can also see that Mary praised the power of Jesus that turned the world upside down, knowing that the coming of Jesus Christ is the foundation of her hope. Thus she sang, “He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” (Lk 1:51-53)

God Reverses the Ways of the World

It is not hard to imagine that the church today will find it difficult to sing Mary’s hymn. How can we say that God sends the rich away empty? The world we live in always says: blessed are the rich; blessed are the people who are successful; blessed are those that have power and authority―blessed is Herod.

However, Mary would say: God has turned everything upside down. God reverses the ways of the world by choosing those who are lowly to make His Kingdom a reality. God is determined to save those who are poor, who are abused or who are suppressed. God will pull down those who have power and authority from their high status and from their authoritative positions where they sit securely. God triumphs over those who are only temporarily strong and forceful. In fact, though the proud are now being prestigious, one day they too will die. Their glory, power, and legacy will fade with the passage of time.

In this way, does reversing the way of the world mentioned by Mary mean that those who have no power and authority will become those who have? The rich become the poor? The poor become the rich? The weak gain power from the powerful? The poor take away the wealth of the rich?

The answer is ― No! The typical revolutionary format: the rich become poor, the poor become rich, the weak seize power from rulers, will always produce a new authority and structure that brings about new control. Only the roles are reversed. An astonishing fact is this: some social revolutionists who value freedom, democracy, and liberation, and a society that advocates communist or socialist ideals in the end become the evil powers and tyrants of tomorrow.

To Triumph over Herod’s Power with Love and Suffering

Reversing the ways of the world that Mary sang is not without an answer and the answer lies with a rabbi.

That rabbi sang a song in which the lyrics seem bizarre: “Blessed are the pure in heart, blessed are the hungry, blessed are the meek.” He knows that his mother is convinced that God will not tolerate injustice and greediness. He also knows that his mother believes this: When man is selfish and acts in his own interest, when the rich are blind to the starvation of the poor, when those in power drive the weak away, God will be indignant. This rabbi talks about reversing the ways of the world. What he refers to is this: not that the powerless seize power from rulers, not that the poor take away the wealth of the rich, not to overthrow Herod by Herod’s means. From childhood, he was brought up in poverty and had to work with his hands. He triumphs over Herod’s ways of doing things with love and through suffering. He has been unjustly accused, put to trial in a corrupt system, and put to shame in the hypocrisy of man. He was crucified on the cross and yet He triumphed over the power of evil by suffering on the cross.

This rabbi is the protagonist of Magnificat, our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ clearly announced the charter of the gospel, which reverses the usual order. He did not go to the right (to where Ceasar or Pilate stood), nor went to the society’s left (to stand with the group Zealots). Instead, he went to stand among the poor and the sinners so that they could have forgiveness and redemption and he called them to enter into a community which incarnates the will of God: the Church.

In this light, Jesus and his disciples do not want to be one among the power groups but rather to be a model inside and outside the church to embody the will of God, testifying to God’s mercy. According to this charter, the first duty of the church is to be a church, which means to show the world the shape of the kind of social relationship designated by God through a “communion of mercy” between church members. This is the way that the church fulfills its social responsibility.

Our Souls Magnify the Lord the Almighty

This is what Mary who sang the Magnificat believes. This is also what HKBTS’s teachers and students who sang the Magnificat believe. Like Mary, in an age of difficulty, our souls magnify the Lord the Almighty, we trust in God as we nurture the next faithful generation.

It is our earnest hope that the song that HKBTS’s teachers and students sing is also the song of Jesus Christ, “Blessed are the pure in heart, blessed are the hungry, blessed are the meek.” After having heard God’s word, we must share it with others, not simply repeating God’s word, but interpreting it in such a way that others can see that it is the true gospel. Help them see that God does not tolerate injustice and greediness. God loathes humankind’s selfishness. He loathes the rich being blind to the conditions of the poor and the powerful who drive away the weak. However, they need to know that they are not to take away the wealth of the rich, not to gain power from the powerful, not to use Herod’s means to overthrow Herod. They are willing to be poor, to be unfairly accused, and humiliated. They have to triumph over the power of sin through the suffering of the cross. The church has to faithfully read the Bible and discern God’s will, summons up courage to point out the problems of our current society, and needs to triumph over the power of Herod with the love and suffering of Christ.

We pray that God will lead us to walk steadily forward in this crooked and chaotic generation, enabling the seminary’s teachers and students to glorify God under any condition, stepping across boundaries and all kinds of differences, in the days ahead taking over the relay torch, running on the road according to God’s direction, and inheriting our Baptist heritage. May our attitude be the same as that of Christ Jesus and may HKBTS look to the future under the leadership of God.

Aug 2016